ROGER Herridge, the Binfield manager, believes his side are capable of mixing it with the best in the Hellenic League, writes Dave Wright.

“We are in a far healthier position than we were at this time a year ago,” he revealed His Moles finished seventh last season, but are setting their sights even higher this time around.

“We feel we should be looking to certainly finish in the top six, but with the players we have now got here, we should be looking to break into that top four,” said Herridge, whose men got off to a great start with a 4-1 win at Ardley United last Saturday.

“I think it will be an open league this season and there are seven or eight sides, or maybe more, thinking we have not got much to fear here. There are some really good sides around.

“In my book, Brimscombe & Thrupp will be hard to beat, Bishops Cleeve will be strong and Flackwell Heath will be competitive under Marcus Richardson.”

Herridge continued: “I am very happy with what we have got here, we’ve got a good squad and I think we can look forward to a good season.

“I thought we were a better side than our seventh place might indicate last season, and it will be very disappointing if we don’t improve on that. We will only have ourselves to blame.

Those traits were largely reflected when they defeated Bracknell Town 3-2 in their final pre-season friendly on Tuesday last week, producing an excellent all-round display.

“There is a really good team spirit here,” continued Herridge.

“As you will see with other clubs in this league, if you have the nucleus of a squad that has been together for two or three seasons, you have that core and team spirit.”

The manager has strengthened his team with new arrivals including striker Jemel Johnson from Thatcham and Khalid Senussi from Bracknell, both returning to Hill Farm Lane.

He concluded: “Now we have a large squad, we are going to find it difficult to keep everyone happy, but the better they play, the more they play – it’s as simple as that.”